Bloodsport
by itsapaigeturner
Summary: Their world was shaken up and their lives were turned inside-out. Trying to put their past behind them whilst fighting for their lives, it's only a matter of time before secrets emerge and threaten to ruin the barriers that protect them from the enemy.
1. Nikki

_- Nikki -_

The water was covering her body, filling each hole and interrupting her breathing. She preferred this over being in the fresh air. Something about breathing in oxygen every second of her life was so boring. She enjoyed living on the edge, even if waking up every morning answered that call on its own.

Her chest was tightening and her brain was getting heavier, like it were about to explode. Something began to rush through her veins. Adrenaline? Maybe; whatever it was, it was exciting.

This _was _living on the edge.

Suddenly, strong hands gripped her shoulders and ripped her out of the water.

"Nikki!" Worry and angst filled the lines on the brunette's face.

Nikki looked up and around her. She was still alive, clearly. It wasn't her intentions to hurt herself. She was merely testing her limits - seeing how long it would take before she would pass out.

She sat up and stood on her feet, allowing the water to run down her body and back into the bathtub beneath her. "You couldn't have waited for me?"

Brianna sighed and shook her head at her twin. "We have to go."

"Why now? I thought we weren't leaving until after dinner."

"We don't have time for that now." Another sigh escaped her parted lips. Reaching over, she handed her sister the last towel they had. Resources were already running low and they needed to spare their last dollars for food. "Randy wants to get out of here before the storm comes in tonight."

Nikki rolled her eyes and stepped out of the tub, wrapping the towel around herself. "The storm won't harm us."

"But _they _will," she said before waltzing out of the room. "You have twenty minutes to finish your packing. We'll be hitting the road before sun-down."

She watched her sister leave before giving her a sarcastic wave. Tightening the towel around her body, the brunette began walking to her bedroom. She looked around at the walls through the dim light that the old light-fixtures still provided. Randy had remembered to install solar-panels before the electricity in the city was cut-off, so their house was one of the few left in town that got power. Old photos, from what felt like eternities ago, outlined the wall. Smiles from Randy and Brianna's wedding and from Dominic's birth struck a chord in her heart. Just thinking of her three-year-old nephew was enough to send her off and load her gun. He didn't deserve to live in a world like this.

She made it to her room and dropped her towel. Removing her wet clothes and piling them in the corner, she thought about how it would be the last time she would wear them unless she decided to pack them away into her small duffel bag. Even small things like that made her heart ache.

After a few minutes of checking her bag, she decided to raid her own cabinets. She continued to search for something - anything to make her regret leaving this place. She'd only been living there for a few months, ever since it all started and her house became infected. Her mind flashed back to when John was bitten. The horror of watching Randy slay her true love to protect the rest of them was still fresh on her mind. And, it sucked.

_'No tears,'_, she reminded herself. There was no time for tears anymore. They could smell fear. And, even worse, they could track you down with its scent.

She shook off the memory and continued looking through her drawers. Reaching deep into the puddle of old clothes, she ran her fingers along the soft wood until her fingers came across something of different texture. Carefully, she slid it out and looked at it; a photograph of her and Brianna, with their parents. The date on the back was _10-04-2004_. Her parent's anniversary. It had been so long since she'd seen their faces. So long since she'd seen her own smile.

"Nikki!"

Looking away from the photo, Nikki looked at the door. "Coming!"

She could hear Randy's feet as he stomped through the house with bags. Quickly, she stuffed the photo into her bag and zipped it up. The bag thrown over her shoulder, she headed for the door. She stopped in the doorway and made one last look back at the room she once slept in. The room she once cried over John in. The room she would most likely never see again. And then she turned and ran down the stairs.

"You have everything?" Brianna asked, cradling Dominic in her arms.

Nikki nodded and ran a hand through her dirty hair.

"Good," Randy said, stepping into the room. "I packed as much food as I can into the trunk and left Dom's car seat in the back. Nikki can sit back with him, Brie will help me with directions."

"How do we even know where to go?" Nikki asked. Her skepticism had always been a source of error for the trio.

Brianna handed Dominic to Randy so he could get settled in the car before picking up her own bag and leading Nikki to the car. "A few others made a trail on their way to camp for us. Only a handful of group members know the codes, and I'm one of them."

Choosing not to respond, Nikki dropped her bag into the car and piled herself in. She glanced down at the toddler and acted out the most artificially genuine smile she could whip up. "Chin up, kid. Everything is going to be just fine."

...

"How much longer do you think we'll be driving?"

Brianna looked to her husband and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We should be there soon. They said they would leave a piece of red cloth on a broomstick when we hit the fork in the road. That way we know which way to go."

"They couldn't have just told us 'right' or 'left'?" Nikki looked over the side of the front seat so that she was meeting a gaze with Randy. Realizing how long she was staring, she turned back and looked out the window at the trees that they were passing by.

Despite the situation, the world had never looked more beautiful. Nature still appeared more glorious, smelt more clean and pure, yet still felt so wrong.

Feeling the car slow down, Nikki looked up. "What's going on?"

"We're at the fork in the road," Randy announced. "Where's that broomstick?"

Fear crept into the bottom of her stomach as she watched her sister get out of the car.

"Brie!" Randy shouted, getting out just enough to stick his head out the door. "You can't be out here."

She looked back to answer him. "I'm looking for the broomstick. The wind might've knocked it over when the storm started coming in."

Undoing her seatbelt, Nikki removed her hand from the sleeping toddler and unlocked her door. Taking her first step into the world outside of her house felt weird. Almost as if she was walking into a universe that she'd never been. Even if she'd been in confinement for only eight months.

"Nikki, get back in the car."

The brunette looked up at Randy and saw the worry in his eyes. She nodded and sat back down, returning her hand to Dominic's chest. For some reason, she always felt the need to make sure he was still breathing well. To make sure that there was nothing abnormal about him.

"C'mon, Brie. Let's just drive and see if we find them."

"We won't have enough gas to make it back if we go the wrong way!"

"I brought an extra gallon in the trunk, we can just fill it up if we need to!"

Brianna sighed and looked one last time to her right. A smile forming on her face, she bent over and picked up a broomstick with red cloth tied around the handle. "See? I told you they wouldn't disa-"

Something jumped out of nowhere, attacking her mid-sentence.

"BRIE!" Running over to help her, Randy pulled out his gun and shot the creature in the head. It fell off to the side, allowing Brianna to squirm off, wrapping her arms around Randy's leg. It immediately curled up and turned to ash, disintegrating into the floor.

All Nikki could do was sit with her jaw agape. It wasn't the first time she'd witnessed a zombie attack, but it was the first time it had happened to her sister.

"Were you bitten?" Randy asked, kneeling down by his wife's side.

She was shaking her head rapidly, her body trembling. "No, no..."

The scene had created enough sound to wake Dominic up, who had begun to weep. He was quiet at first, but when Nikki tried to calm him he lost it.

"He's crying," Randy said, almost in a warning.

"We have to go!" Nikki yelled, doing everything she could to calm the upset toddler.

Randy and Brianna began running to the car. A faint whistle began to sound in the air behind the trees. The sun was already falling and the light was fading. Dominic wouldn't stop crying and by the time his parents reached the car, the road was blocked by dozens of them.

"What..." Brianna could barely make the words come out of her mouth. "What do we do...?"

After a moments pause, Randy gripped tightly onto the wheel. "The only thing we can do."

"Randy, don't. They can take the car."

"Not if we go fast enough."

Her head was spinning, Nikki couldn't breathe. Dominic's cries were getting louder and the zombies were inching closer and closer to them. Panic was setting in and they all had to hold themselves together so they wouldn't break down.

Closing her eyes tightly, Brianna reached back and grasped the side of Dom's car seat. "Go," she ordered.

Randy stomped his foot on the gas, sending the car full-speed ahead. The sound of bodies - dead, bodies - slamming against the exterior of the car sent Nikki into practical shock. All she could do was hunch over the toddler and beg to anyone who could hear her for help. The windshield started to crack, but the sounds were too loud for anyone to warn about what was going to happen next.

One body after another hit the car until one finally broke through the glass of the windshield. Randy turned the car sharply, sending Brianna's head right into the passenger side window.

"Brie," Nikki could only whispered. Her sister fell forward as the injured body of the zombie rolled out the broken windshield.

"Watch her!" Randy shouted back to his sister-in-law as he loaded his gun and stepped out of the car.

Reaching around the front seat, Nikki unbuckled her sister and pulled her into her own lap. "Brie...wake up." Tears were spilling from her eyes. This couldn't be happening. This isn't how they were supposed to live. "C'mon, Brie. You have to wake up!"

Gun shots filled the next few minutes until Randy's screams sounded from behind the vehicle. "NIKKI! HELP ME!"

She turned her head back and saw that there were three of them, surrounding Randy. He tossed his gun back, so she assumed that he'd run out of bullets. She stuck her hand into the bag under her feet and pulled out her own gun, loaded it, and jumped out of the car. She nailed all three of them with precision and accuracy.

Randy turned back to her and ordered her to get in the car, but she shook her head.

"Nicole," he nearly shouted, "get in the car."

She shook her head even faster. "Brie is hurt, Randy. The car is a wreck, driving in that thing will only get us killed faster."

"Just, get in the car. We'll figure something out."

"You can't fix everything!" They were both shouting now. "You can't fix anything!"

Once they paused for air, they realized that Dominic had stopped crying. They heard a faint singing coming from inside the backseat of the car and they walked slowly, in sync, towards the vehicle.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mamma's gonna buy you a mockingbird," Brianna sang lightly. Blood trickled down her forehead and into her lap, barely missing the blanket that covered the young child. A deep bruise was already appearing around the gash, creating a sight that was both painful and beautiful. Even in pain she could calm the world.

So, they both sat down next to the mother.

The sky was quiet, the wind had settled down. Wholes filled the car from side to side and all over, so the stars peered in.

Nikki rested her head against the back of the seat as Randy maneuvered himself into the driver's seat and forced the car into drive. Before long, they were heading down the road, gently going over the broomstick with the red bandana tied around the handle.

* * *

><p><strong>A story about a zombie apocalypse...definitely something that I'm not used to writing and you're not used to reading from me. Well, I'm giving it a shot because I went through a strange "I need to write a story about people surviving an apocalypse" phase and I needed to get this out there.<br>**

**I KNOW I'M GETTING REALLY BAD ABOUT UPDATING AND I'M VERY SORRY! School's been eating away at my soul and I've been losing inspiration to write. But, I managed to pull this together and hopefully you'll all continue reading even if you aren't a big science-fiction fan, because let's face it, neither am I. **

**Next chapter will include new characters, and that pattern will continue until I fill my need to write more characters. Okay, long author's note. Extremely sorry. Please review and I hope you guy enjoyed this newest peek into my madness. :)**


	2. Dean

_- Dean -_

The screams were still ringing in his ears. They collided and filled his head, torturing him endlessly.

So much had changed since the last time he'd walked across the rusted railroad tracks that he now was using as a map to guide his crew to safety. He'd only gone so far from his home, and the thought of not knowing where he was made him squirm.

"Do you see anything that could tell us where we are?"

Dean shook his head and stopped walking. "I barely even recognize this place."

"Well," Summer sighed as she stopped next to him, "there's got to be something that you remember. You've lived here all your life, I mean, can't you remember something about these railroad tracks, or the trees?"

"Or even that old abandoned factory over there?" Seth pointed over the trees at the tall, yet almost completely destroyed, building to their left.

Despite the lingering familiarity, Dean couldn't place his finger on any of it. Nothing looked right to him. Nothing seemed to fit the last piece of the puzzle they needed. They were just going to be stuck out there for the rest of their miserable lives.

Eventually, Summer couldn't contain her disappointment. Stopping dead in her tracks, the tanned blonde protested the slow movement by ironically refusing to go any further. It took a second for the men to realize their only female counterpart wasn't next to them.

"What are you doing?" Seth asked, spinning around on his heels.

She shrugged simply before dropping the backpack off her shoulder, allowing it to fall and reach the ground. "I'm hungry and I'm tired. For the last two years, that's all I've been. I'm supposed to be engaged to the love of my life, probably sitting in a luxurious mansion sipping on a fresh cocktail but instead I'm with two idiots whom I met accidently when I was fleeing said mansion after the man I was supposed to marry got his skin ripped off my a flesh-eating monster!" Taking in a sharp breath, the blond refueled her lungs. "So, forgive me while I rest my aching feet."

The two men exchanged looks of both confusion and exhaustion.

"You can't just sit there," Seth argued. "_They'll find you_."

"Oh well! Let them find me!" The woman tossed her bag to the floor before lowering herself to the ground. Crossing one leg over the other, she rested her back onto her bag and closed her eyes. "Wake me up if you all find your way. Or, don't. Leave me here to die."

Dean wasn't even paying attention anymore. He'd lost interest the childish ways of the blonde and was now focusing on the abandoned building in the distance. His chest was yearning for him to go inside, but something was pulling him away. Something was warning him of danger.

Turning away from Summer, Seth noticed the strange man's gaze. "You recognize something?"

His head shook reflexively. "Maybe...I'm just not sure."

"Well, could you figure it out before we all start to starve and have to end up eating each other to survive?"

The men once again turned their heads to glare in her direction.

"If he says he isn't sure, then he isn't sure."

Summer sat up. "Or, maybe he's just pretending because he knows something we don't. Like, maybe he worked for the government and knows about a bunker or something where they store food and equipment in case of a national emergency."

"So, let me get this straight." Seth began moving toward her. "You're saying that Dean, a man who looks like," he looked back at him, "no offense," and then back at Summer, "like he walked out of a homeless shelter, worked for the government?"

"It's a possibility."

"And, he's looking for a secret bunker that only he has access too?"

She nodded. "That's what I'm saying."

"Well it's nothing but crap."

Crossing her arms, Summer rolled to her feet and stood up. She walked closer to him so that there was barely enough room between them to not share air. "You expect me to believe that he isn't hiding something from us?"

Returning her almost silent tone, Seth shook his head. "I trust him."

A small smirk crept onto her face. "Then...how come he just ran off into the woods alone?"

Spinning around, Seth realized that she was right: Dean was nowhere to be seen. "Grab your stuff!" He began to run.

"We're really going to chase after him?"

"If you're right about anything you said, then he knows where food is!"

She hesitated, but eventually grabbed her bag and dashed off with him. In that moment, hunger was the only thing stronger than hate.

Dean...Dean was just running. Trying to run the memories off, perhaps? He wasn't entirely sure why they weren't completely back yet, but the burden of knowing that he couldn't remember his past was haunting him. Maybe if he could run fast enough...they would go away for good. He could start over, with a clean slate. He could pretend that he was someone else, someone new. Someone who didn't fear going to sleep each night because a memory would threaten to break his steel heart.

If Summer and Seth hadn't stumbled across him in that alleyway in the middle of the night, he probably would've been bitten. He owed every ounce of respect to them, but he also knew that whatever was in that abandoned building might lead him to the answers he was searching for.

His breath calmed as he slowed his pace down. He approached the old, rusted doors of the building. It was devastatingly large, towering over him. Reaching forward, he used the slightest amount of strength to pull the door almost off its hinges.

The place was abnormally cold. And considering how loosely the door hung to the walls, it only created an unsatisfying confusion.

He didn't really pay much attention to the yelling coming from behind him. He'd almost forgotten the two others who would obviously follow him if it meant he was leading them to some well-deserved food. And, if it were up to him, he would go to the ends of the earth to eat something. It had been almost two months since he'd had something besides stale bread or dirty vegetables. Even he, who knew near-to-nothing about plantation, was surprised to learn that vegetables would grow when the planet was under such harsh conditions.

The eerie chill wasn't enough to send him away, and the growing calls behind him weren't either.

Looking out at an old desk, covered in dust, he saw flashes of items that once covered the surface. Pens, notebooks, binders, staplers - everyday office supplies. He glanced at the stairs, which were empty, and saw people walking up and down, their hands filled with paperwork. The empty walls were covered in pictures and bulletin boards and framed certificates. His head began to pound, and he could no longer hear Summer and Seth calling him.

They were already standing behind him, catching their breath, when Dean covered his ears and kneeled to the floor. Curiously, Summer peered at him over Seth's shoulder.

"What is he doing?"

Squinting his eyes at him, Seth shook his head. "I think he's remembering."

"Remembering where he hid the food?"

"He didn't hide any food, Summer."

"You don't know that!"

"Of course I know that! You don't think I know that?"

"It's in the kitchen."

Summer and Seth removed their eyes from each other and turned their heads toward the, now standing, Dean.

"What is?" Seth asked.

His heart was slowing back down to a normal pace and the overwhelming pounding of his head subsided. "The food." He paused, remembering where the food was. "There's a fridge. Not one of the family-style ones but the kind that an office building has." He looked up from the floor at their faces. They were split between looking ecstatic and perplexed. "There's frozen foods in the fridge."

Pulling her bag over her shoulder, the blonde quickly unzipped it. "Don't have to tell me twice!" Carrying the open bag carefully, Summer ran through the building in search of the kitchen. Once she found it, she wasted no time in prying open the refrigerator doors and taking every box off the shelves and dragging them out of the cold air.

Seth and Dean caught up with the blonde eventually, but refrained from getting in her way. If she'd taught them anything in the last hour it was that she was not to messed with when she's hungry.

"How is everything still frozen?"

"Probably because the freezer is run off a separate generator. If something broke down in the electrical wing than things might've frozen over."

"How did you know there was even a kitchen back here?"

Dean didn't even acknowledge Seth with a look. He continued to watch Summer eat the food as if she were a vicious animal. "I think I used to work here."

* * *

><p><strong>It was a short update, but considering my lengthy break I figured that any update was better than no update. And, I apologize if there are any awful errors. I guess that this site removed their spell-check feature and I was in a rush to bring you this update. <strong>

**A few more characters will be introduced next time and probably the time after that. I'll be sure to let you all know once everyone I've chosen for the main "cast" if you will has been featured. **

**Until next time... :)**


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